Secret deals
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- Published on Sunday, 25 January 2015 02:44
- Written by editor
World leaders are racing against time to push through two trade deals that will impact our food safety, Internet freedom and environmental standards -- without any democratic oversight.
Tell global leaders to stop negotiating in secret and release the text of the TPP and TTIP immediately.
Paov,
The next rounds of secret talks for two trade deals that will put our democracy, food safety and environmental standards in the hands of corporations are about to take place in Brussels and New York.
World leaders are working alongside major corporations to pass these dangerous deals -- but are refusing to tell us what’s inside the agreements. We need to speak out now to stop this corporate takeover.
Leaks from the negotiations paint a terrible picture of what the world could be like if these deals pass: sky-high costs for life-saving cancer treatment, further devastation of the world’s poor, and the right for big corporations to sue governments in secret courts for billions -- just for passing laws that protect families, workers and the planet.
With only days to go until the next rounds of negotiations begin, we need to get access to these texts urgently.
These trade deals will have global implications and will put corporations in the driver's seat of democracy, and that's why it's imperative we see these texts. Trade deals used to actually be about trade -- but these nefarious deals are being used as tools to sneak major changes to our democratic laws and regulatory systems that benefit corporations, while hurting us.
The need to end the secrecy around trade negotiations is more urgent than ever. In just a few days world leaders are gathering in New York and Brussels for the next round of talks. In case of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, this will be the last round of talks. They’re hoping to ram the deal through by March. Leaders are also racing to finalize the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), especially as European dissatisfaction with the deal is growing.
The TPP and TTIP would give corporations the right to sue our government for passing laws that threaten expected profits -- and taxpayers would be forced to pay the losses. And we don’t even know the half of it because the texts of these deals are under lock and key.
It’s not unprecedented for countries to agree to release the text of a deal before it’s final -- it's happened before. Just last week the EU Ombudsman called on the European Commission to publish more documents from the TTIP -- thanks in part to SumOfUs members who submitted comments. With momentum building, this is a key moment people around the world to call on our leaders for trade transparency.
It only takes one side to agree to release the text of one of these agreements to push others to do the same. If enough of us come together now, we can force our leaders to stop negotiating in secret and release the texts once and for all.
Global opposition to the TPP and TTIP is growing to a fever pitch. SumOfUs members and allies have been instrumental in raising the profile on these secret trade deals. We’ve showed up outside talks across the world, held demonstrations, snuck inside hotels where negotiations were taking place to distribute flyers to sleeping negotiators, campaigned against elected officials, ran full-page ads in newspapers, and landed dozens of press stories.
World leaders are desperate to pass these two dangerous trade deals this year. Let's make sure they cannot get away with this corporate sell-out.
Thanks for all you do,
Paul, Emma, Anne and the team at SumOfUs.org
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Further reading:
U.S. senator says Pacific trade deal on 'two-month trajectory'. Reuters. January 13, 2015.
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